Bob Hunt Photographer

Category: All-American

One of Bradley Basketball’s all-time great players and one of the newest members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Chet “The Jet” Walker was the honored guest at the annual Red-White Scrimmage Friday evening at the Renaissance Coliseum. Walker starred at Bradley from 1959-62, leading the Braves to the 1960 National Invitation Tournament championship and a Missouri Valley Conference regular-season co-title in 1962. One of seven players in program history to have his uniform number (31) retired, Walker remains the only two-time, consensus All-American in Bradley Basketball history. He finished his collegiate career as Bradley’s all-time leading scorer and his 1,975 points in three varsity seasons (freshmen were ineligible for varsity competition at the time) remain the fourth-best total in program history. His 54 career point-rebound double-doubles also remain the most in Bradley Basketball history and he is joined by Dick Estergard as the only two Braves to score at least 1,000 career points and grab at least 1,000 career rebounds. Following his Bradley career, Walker was the 12th overall selection in the 1962 NBA Draft by the Syracuse Nationals and he played 13 NBA seasons with Syracuse, Philadelphia and Chicago Bulls. A seven-time NBA All-Star, he was a member of the NBA world champion 1967 Philadelphia 76ers team, considered to be one of the best teams in league history. Walker played in 1,032 regular-season NBA games, scoring 18,831 points (18.2 ppg) and snaring 7,314 rebounds (7.1 rpg). He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.